Hundreds of Twitter users are demanding that Republican leader Steve Scalise must resign immediately. The online movement started with a video shared by Scalise in a bit to show presidential nominee Joe Biden in bad light. It was a low blow.
Scalise shared a video of activist Ady Barkan, who speaks through voice assistance due to ALS, interviewing Biden. But the original video was doctored to show as if Barkan questioned Biden's stand on defunding the police, to which Biden responded with a strong affirmation. But that's not how it went in reality.
Washington Post reported Dave Weigel noticed the alteration. Then Twitter labeled Scalise's tweet as "manipulated media" based on its policy. Even though the tweet in question was later deleted, it sparked outrage on Twitter after Ady blasted Scalise in a strong-worded tweet.
"These are not my words. I have lost my ability to speak, but not my agency or my thoughts. You and your team have doctored my words for your own political gain," Barkan tweeted tagging Scalise. Barkan rightfully demanded an apology to the entire disability community, which is still overdue.
The shameful act
So, Twitter saw two versions of Barkan interviewing Biden videos. In the original one, Barkan asked Biden about the police violence, to which Biden replied: "We can reduce the responsibilities assigned to the police and redirect some of the funding for police into mental health counseling, and affordable housing."
Later, Barkan asks "do we agree that we can redirect some of the funding?" to which Biden responds, "yes."
However, Scalise's doctored video added the words "for police" at the end of Barkan's question on redirects some of the funding. This was a clear attempt to make it show as if Barkan was asking Biden to defund the police, something the former VP has clearly been against.
Biden also spoke against Scalise's act. "This video is doctored — and a flagrant attempt to spread misinformation at the expense of a man who uses assistive technology," Biden said.
Scalise did say he would "honor the request of Ady Barkan and remove the portion of his interview from our video." But there was no sign of an apology anywhere.
Scalise resign
An online movement demanding Scalise's resignation has been trending on Twitter. The #ScaliseResign hashtag picked up momentum on Monday after many users criticised the Republican's actions.
